In a shocking case, a man who lost his job in Hyderabad due to the lockdown, allegedly killed his bedridden mother by pouring kerosene and set her on fire while she was asleep at her house.
The incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday. The accused has been identified as Tirumala Lingaswami (45), who was a construction worker.
As per an Indian Express report, the man from Nalgonda’s Narsingbatla village, allegedly told his sisters that he was not in a position to take care of his mother anymore. Soon after the incident, he fled the spot and police are currently looking for him.
The old mother identified as T Shantamma (65) had broken her hip bone five years ago after which she fell in the bathroom. Since then, she had been bedridden. The man and his three sisters had hired a caregiver to take care of their mother but after the lockdown taking place, the caregiver was not coming.
“Her daughter who lives in a neighbouring village used to come down once a week to clean her up and give her a bath, otherwise the old woman was alone and had no help,’’ said Rajeshwar Reddy, Sub-Inspector at Nalgonda Rural police station.
After Lingaswami reached home, he found that neither the caregiver nor his sisters were able to take care of the mother. Unable to bear the sight of his bedridden mother he tried to persuade the caregiver to join work, but she refused.
After recording statements of the three sisters, police said Lingaswami was pressuring Shantamma to sell the house to tide over the financial crisis.
“His sisters told us that he had no money as he had used all his money during the lockdown… He pressured his sisters to tell their mother to sell the house… Her sisters said that it was probably the sight of his mother unable to take care of her personal hygiene and her refusal to sell the house that drove him to commit the alleged crime. It is not clear whether he wanted to use the money to take care of his mother,” a police officer said.
“We are also investigating if his marital problems led to this as his wife recently left him with their two-year-old child… His sisters claim that he was consuming a lot of alcohol during the lockdown,” an officer further added.
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